The Shadow (A Sacrilegious Life)
The Shadow is an enigmatic entity who resides within and rules over the Empty. It claims to have existed before God or the Darkness, with no one capable of interfering with its domain. This was later proven to be false, as its true origin is being the result of God's first creative act along with Darkness and the Natural Order. Biography According to itself, the Shadow and the Empty have existed before God or The Darkness and it has slept uninterrupted for eternity. Somehow, its domain came to be the afterlife for angels, demons, reapers, and pagan deities throughout the Creation and all the universes therein. When Jack Kline, the Nephilim son of the archangel Lucifer, called out for Castiel the angel awoke in The Empty. He soon came into contact with the Shadow, who told Castiel what the realm was and claimed that it existed prior to God or the Darkness, as well as how not even God "had strings over The Empty," before attempting to convince Castiel to resume sleeping. Defiantly resisting, Castiel utterly refused to return to sleep until the Shadow entity finally became fed up with the angel and kicked him out of the Empty, where he returned to Earth. Later on when Jack Kline died briefly, the Shadow entity became agitated that the hybrid ended up in Heaven instead of the Empty and assaulted it; searching for Jack and quickly overwhelming the few remaining angels. The Shadow found its target, but prior to taking him to the Empty it encountered Castiel again. The two made a deal; in exchange for leaving Jack alone the Shadow reserved the right to take Castiel into The Empty at any moment, promising to make good on this deal when he was at his happiest. Shortly before Michael retook control of Dean Winchester, the Ruler of Hell, Alexander, read through some of the Demon Tablet and found mentions of the Shadow entity, The Empty, and its single greatest secret. Later on Alexander summoned The Shadow, where the demon threatened it with revelation of its true nature to all remaining angels and demons if it didn't tell him how Lucifer made the White-Eyed Demons, Princes of Hell, and how to change demon types from one to another. Despite capitulating to Alexander's demands, the Shadow threatened him with eternal torture which would make Alastair envious if Alexander did reveal that information, and to never contact him again. Almost an entire year later, when Alexander was finally ready to begin conquering the universe, the Ruler of Hell revealed the truth about the Shadow to a low tier demon; neither the Empty nor the Shadow existed prior to God or Amara. The Shadow is the first creation of God, made as a bridge between God and the Darkness. It was killed by Darkness immediately. Its death did not cause the Shadow to cease to exist, as non-existence is an impossible state; instead it was cast into a nebulous status held in place by the natural order, also created by God at the same moment The Shadow came to be, until Amara completely devastated God's first world which became The Empty. The Shadow was deposited here by the Natural Order after Darkness was defeated by God and His Archangels, with the Natural Order taking on a new role as Death, the Pale Horseman. The Shadow rested within The Empty, which was turned into the afterlife of angels, pagan deities, reapers, and demons throughout the multiverse by God. Aware of its great secret being revealed to a demon who was then immediately killed by Alexander, the Shadow descended to Earth with fury and power, almost killing Alexander and Jesse Turner before being imprisoned in Death's Coffin. Powers & Abilities Powers The Shadow is an alarmingly powerful entity and God's first creation. Its nature is akin to that of the Archangels, though more powerful and instead of being light it is a combination of light and dark. * Nigh-Omnipotence: The Shadow is a highly powerful entity, capable of completely overwhelming Heaven's defenses and the remaining angels with ease, even shattering the allegedly unbreakable angel-expelling magic which Metatron cast and the angels proved unable to remove for several years. It was also able to effortlessly overpower Castiel, a Seraph. It claimed that not even God or the Darkness could take something from its grasp, though this is false. Despite its overwhelming power the Shadow is unable to force an entity such as an angel or demon to sleep unlike God or Darkness, instead trying to convince Castiel back into his everlasting slumber. A Primordial Entity such as God or Amara can easily overpower The Shadow, Amara killed it easily at the beginning of time and God's can retrieve angels from its domain effortlessly. Death is also "a shade" more powerful than the Shadow. ** Resurrection: The Shadow has power over life and death, and can return any inhabitant within its domain to life. ** Reality Warping: Reality is easily altered, added or subtracted from by the Shadow. It was able to create a new, perfectly effective vessel for Castiel identical to his previous one with a simple thought while kicking him out of the Empty. It can possess the remaining angels and change its form to mimic theirs; while in the Empty it also took on the appearance of Jimmy Novak while speaking to Castiel. ** Super Strength: A single unrestrained punch from Shadow was able to render Alexander, who had the power of an archangel and was infused with an angel tablet, punch-drunk. It also battered a highly empowered Jesse Turner to the point that he could barely move. ** Smiting: The Shadow attempted to smite the archangelic Alexander in a manner similar to angelic smiting, it would have succeeded had Jesse Turner not interfered. * Nigh-Omniscience: The Shadow appears to be aware of everything which has occurred in and about Creation despite its tendency to sleep, knowing about Castiel's life and even later being aware of Jack Kline's death from within the Empty. It demonstrated awareness of all knowledge held by those who come to rest within the Empty, as it explained how Lucifer altered souls into White-Eyed Demons and Princes of Hell and how to change demons from one type to another to Alexander. * Immortality: It claims to have existed before God or Darkness, if true this would make the Shadow the most ancient entity in existence. In truth, The Shadow is simply the first entity to be created and it is actually dead and has been since the instant time began. * Invulnerability: It appears to be nearly invincible, with no known weapon capable of damaging it and few it any entities considered powerful enough to even slow it down. Jesse Turner, whose power was at the time the sum of Jack Kline's full power, Lucifer's full power, and the Angel tablet's augmenting power could merely stun it for a short time. Vulnerabilities While the Shadow entity is powerful it has ways to be deterred or imprisoned, and it can also be annoyed into submission. Additionally, God or Amara can overpower it. Beings * Primordial Entities: Despite its claims to the contrary, God was able to revive Castiel on at least three different occasions, showing power over the Shadow's domain and a capacity to circumvent its will. Michael from an apocalyptic universe also claimed to be ready for the Shadow with means to either deter or trap it. * Jack Kline: The Nephilim son of Lucifer, Jack was able to awaken Castiel from his eternal slumber in the Empty. * Jesse Turner: A unique cambion, Jesse Turner could slow the Shadow down when he had the sum of Lucifer's power and the angel tablet, as well as Jack Kline's power. Other * Prayer: Nick was able to awaken Lucifer by praying to him. * Sleep Deprivation: The Shadow appears to intensely desire sleep at all times, and thus when an inhabitant within its domain awakens the Shadow will do anything it can to either convince them to return to sleep or kick them out, allowing it to rest once more. * Michael's Means (possibly): Michael claims to have something ready for the Shadow which would allow him to either trap or force it back into the Empty. He also voiced the opinion that he might be able to kill it. * Awareness Of Its Greatest Secret: Alexander, the King of Hell, was able to force the Shadow to capitulate to his demands by simply threatening to allow all the remaining angels and everyone in Hell to find a hidden message he made which records its greatest secret. Such knowledge, according to Alexander, would allow those who heard it to arrive in the Empty and remain awake. * Death Of A Nephilim, Cambion, Or Nephalem: The hybrid child of a human-angel couple, human-demon couple, or the first child of a Nephilim or Cambion have an equal chance to end up in either Heaven, Hell, The Empty, or temporarily within the Veil. If they do not appear within the Empty the Shadow will be awakened by their deaths and cannot return to sleep until either allowing them to remain where they are, reviving them, or convincing them to rest within the Empty. Zachary Newman, who is a half-human nephalem, is unseen to the Shadow. * Death's Coffin: As this artifact is meant to imprison Death, who is somewhat more powerful than The Shadow, it was used to imprison the Empty's ruler with it being unable to escape. Trivia The Shadow claims that not even God can influence its domain; this is false since God has revived Castiel several times and changed how The Empty worked in the first place, similarly Jack Kline was able to awaken Castiel just by speaking his name, and Nick could wake up Lucifer by praying to him. Castiel later came to conclude the Shadow was lying to him in an attempt to get the angel to willing return to sleep at all costs, especially by making him lose hope in ever escaping. The Shadow is literally as old as time, as temporal existence came to be upon its creation. From a temporal standpoint, God, Darkness, Death, and The Shadow are equal in age, though God is ontologically prior to the others. Category:Higher Beings Category:Ghosts Category:Deceased Category:Rulers Category:Season 13 Villains Category:Season 14 Villains